Jansje wissema biography of abraham

Martin Greshoff writes about the book he has created that contains photographs by Jan Greshoff of the iconic neighbourhood of District Six and the memoirs of some of those who lived there before it was destroyed by the apartheid regime.

My uncle, Jan Greshoff, was an architect who worked in Cape Town, South Africa, from the 1960s to the 1980s. He was a private and modest man and didn’t talk much about his photography. Jan had no children, and it was only after he died and his wife passed his archive of negatives on to us, his nephews and niece, that we discovered the full extent of his archive.

His photographs cover many areas around Cape Town, including District Six.

In common with many architects, Jan was a keen photographer and his profession certainly informed his work and his interest in his environment.

He was a very close friend of Jansje Wissema, who was commissioned to photograph District Six for the South African Institute of Architects at roughly the same time